


The Attack

by Versolite



Category: Lost
Genre: But it's really just an excuse to write some ill!Linus, Gen, Gunshots, I'm having fun, I'm not sorry, M/M, Relapsing, Sickfic, surprise attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:47:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26650891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Versolite/pseuds/Versolite
Summary: i found this old thing while going through my files so heh :')
Relationships: Benjamin Linus & Richard Alpert, Jack Shephard & Benjamin Linus
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i found this old thing while going through my files so heh :')

The sunset is floating on the sea, tracing dazzling golden streaks on the water whose reflections strike the eyes of the survivors and make them drowsy. Yet it's only 8:00 p.m., as Jack's watch indicates; but it has been a long day for all of them. They all are awake, admiring the daytime star or busy with some task, except for Benjamin, who's already sleeping. Needless to say they will all do the same soon.

Or at least they would have done so, if gunshots hadn't begun to resonate all around them.

Immediately, panic spreads itself in the small camp. Miles rushes to the bags that has been left behind while Jack, Sun and Richard jump on their feet and run away towards the trees. They don't know what the others are doing, but they can't worry about it right now.

A few days earlier, Ilana has discovered a cave during an excursion, near the heroin depot brought by the poor Mr. Eko. The place hasn't drawn the attention of anyone so far, Others as crash survivors. It's only a dived rock reinforcement the size of an apartment room, but they quickly noted, when they checked it, that it's more than enough for their small community. They have made a few visits to the site to drop off some of their belongings and to memorize the itinerary that leads to it. So in case of an emergency or separation, they decided that this would be their meeting place.

Sun and Jack has already sat there silently, waiting for the rest of the group, when Richard finally arrives. Jack, with a strange host reflex, gets up to check him.

"I'm alright" Richard reassures him, unable to hide how annoyed he feels.

"We lost you. I thought you were just behind. What happened? 

\- I was trying to wait for the rest of the group, but I only saw Frank and Miles. They looked okay. If all goes well they shouldn't be long now."

An indeed, after a few more minutes, Miles appears, out of breath, quickly followed by Franck.

"Do you think it was Locke's group?" asks Sun, staring at the path they are coming from, although she has no chance to see the beach from the cave.

\- It's possible," says Jack. "Attacking by surprise’s their kind of thing..

\- And you say these people were your friends?" Miles grumbles, wiping blood from his cheek. "At what point did you go from besties to shooting without warning?

Jack searches the bag Miles brought. Even though the situation does not lend itself to it, he can't help laughing nervously at the ghost hunter's sarcastic trait.

"It's complicated," he simply replies while pulling out a tin can.

-Hugo!

Franck gets up to welcome Hurley, who has just arrived and sit down, joining their circle.

"Are you okay? You're hurt or something?

-No, I'm fine. I don't think they were going for hurting us, there, or Ben and Ilana would already be six feet under.

-Where are they?" worries Jack, standing up as if he's going to go get them.

\- Far behind. Ben didn't wake up, so Ilana told me to run and that she would take care of it.

\- What do you mean, he didn't wake up?" Franck shouts.

"I don't think so," Sun says, frowning. "In my opinion, he's doing us a dirty trick again. He's taking advantage of the camp's attack to run away. I knew we couldn't trust him.

\- There's no point in accusing him," replies Richard. "If he wanted to join Locke, he wouldn't have waited so long.

\- Unless he wanted to gather some information first", Miles objects.

Jack gets tired of this, he stands up:

\- I'm going after them. We'll have plenty of time to see what's next...

He hasn't taken a step out of their hiding place that he stops, bewildered. Ilana has just appeared right in frond of him. She looks exhausted, and carries Ben's body across her shoulder. Jack reacts immediately by helping her put him on the floor. While the others, surprised, move to make some room, Jack lays him down on the cave ground.

"What's wrong with him?" Richard worries as he stands up to take a closer look.

\- Wait, stay aside for the moment.

\- Is he... dead?" Hurley stutters, petrified.

"No" says Jack.

"He's just unconscious," Ilana nervously mumbles. "I tried to wake him up during the shots, but he wouldn't react at all, he seemed... out of it, I don't know how to explain it. I'm sorry it took me so long, it was hard to carry him here.

\- You should have asked me for help," says Hurley. "Well, I wouldn't have been much useful, but....

\- We're the last ones? Is anyone missing?

\- No, there's all of us" nods Sun.

They stop talking when Jack gets up, taking off his jacket.

"Miles, you got the water?

\- Yeah, it's here. I couldn't pick all the cans, though, but...

\- It'll be fine, thanks. Just pass me a bottle, please.

\- So what is it?" Hurley asks, handing him what he demanded.

\- I couldn't tell exactly...

Jack seems doubtful, and presses his palm against Ben's forehead, taking a few seconds to make sure of what he felt. "He is burning up.

\- Burning up? What are you... whatcha doing?" Hurley worries as Jack rips off a section of his own jacket's sleeve.

"Do you think it's from a bullet?" Miles asks him. "Was he shot?

\- No, he doesn't have any bullet wound. And an infection doesn't spread that quickly anyway. Whatever he had was prior to the shooting. The important thing is that we're all here now. But I'll take the time to examine him. Maybe he's coming down with something serious.

\- Do you need help with anything?" asks Frank.

"Yes. I need you and Miles to go out and check if it's quiet more quiet now out there.

\- Right away.

\- Sun and Hurley, if you could light a campfire with what we have here, that would be great. And Ilana, I need you to go check if there's a seat from Eko's plane we could use and you could bring back here. Richard, help me, we'll move Ben.

\- Alright."


	2. Chapter 2

Soon enough, Ben is lying on a summary bed, made of coats and the backrest brought by Ilana. It has been set up near the fire Hugo is trying to light with the help of Sun, who's gathering wood and dry leaves. Jack is examining Ben when he sees Richard approaching. The doctor moves aside, letting Richard pass his arm behind the convalescent's shoulders to straighten him up slightly while, with his free hand, he's holding a gourd.

"Benjamin, it's me," he whispers in his ear. "It's Richard. We've reached the cave. We're safe now." He caresses Ben's forehead, as if he was trying to gain his trust through delicacy. "You have to try to drink, okay?"

Jack watches him distractedly. He couldn't say why, but he's thinking back to the day he met Ben. First he was this hurt, suspicious man, caught between the hammer and the anvil (between Sayid and Locke, more precisely), with an arrow across his shoulder. Jack hadn't taken the time to think, then; the first thing that crossed his mind was that there was a wounded man in front of him, and that he had to heal him.

Things has changed, since then.

Despite the level of disgust he feels towards the former leader of the Others, Jack can't help but think that Ben has fully felt all the blows, all the torture, all the hits. He may be a demon, and certainly have acted in a beastly way, but for the most part his pains are authenticate. Jack is divided between the doctor he's supposed to be, at the disposal of the suffering, and the man who has already been deceived a thousand times, and has to be careful.

"Don't you feel him reacting?" he asks.

"No, he doesn't move at all....

\- Well, pass me that bottle."

Richard lengthens Ben's body and gives Jack what he asked for.

"We're already gonna try to lower this fever. We'll see if we can get him to drink afterwards."

He takes the piece of cloth that had been torn before, soaks it and presses out the excess water before applying it to Ben's forehead. Never mind if he regrets it later.

"Do you have another one?" Richard asks.

"A piece of cloth? Wait a second."

He rips off a new section of the jacket and hands it to Richard, who folds, humidifies and applies it to Ben's neck, cheeks and the rest of his face, occasionally adding fresh water.

"Good initiative," nods Jack as he sits down.

"Do you have any idea what's wrong with him?" Richard askz without turning away from his task.

"Well, at first I thought it was the weather or fatigue, but I've seen immune systems like his endure worse conditions. Especially when you consider that his body had thirty-five years to adapt to the island's climate. I'm afraid the problem is a relapse.

\- Do you mean... Are you thinking about his tumor?

\- His what?" Ilana intervenes.

Until now she has been sitting in a side, but the evocation has made her straighten up. She looks for someone to deny or to clarify, but no one does, so she repeats:

"He has a tumor?

\- He had. I took it off. Not the best memory I have on this island, if I'm being honest.

\- He never told me.

\- I mean...You've only known each other for a week, and he killed someone you cared about. I don't think that lends to that kind of confidence.

\- You think so?" she replies. "Because I made that bastard talk about a lot of stuff. He told me he was responsible for his daughter's death, and for Jacob's, and that he regretted it, and I...."

She has raised her voice without realizing it, and she stops talking abruptly. It's like a calm following a heavy thunder. She prefers to sit down again, furiously stirring the fire with the end of a stick. She stares at the man she has sworn to eliminate a few days earlier. There is no hatred or compassion in her eyes, only deep apathy. He looks like shit, laying miserably, breathing heavily.

"A relapse, then", she coldly says. "Could that kill him?

\- I don't think it has reformed, but the side effects of this kind of operation are common. I haven't really had time to worry about it, with everything that has happened to us. But if he's been infected, it's more than time to worry about it."  
Richard stares at him, nodding his head.

"Richard", Jack adds, "I'm going to need the medicine in Miles' backpack, to calm this down a bit until I can take care of him with more appropriate instruments. This story with Locke comes at a really bad time... I don't know how we are going to reach the other island.

\- What, you want to go to the other island?

\- Yes, Hurley. There's no point in hanging here. The problem is, he must have started contracting this days ago. Given his lack of reaction to the shots, he must have already had a temperature rise for some time. I have to deal with this and I'd only have the right equipment at Dharma.

\- Yeah... I was thinking that taking a nap at this time of day was special, even for Ben," Hurley says, shrugging.

\- Do you know when he fell asleep?" asks Jack

\- Oh boy, it must have been an while before the shots! He was already asleep when I asked him to go fishing, and it was four or five hours before we were attacked.

\- So it's been seven hours...

\- What do we do?" asks Sun. "Should we try to wake him up?

\- No. We "ll see if he shows signs of consciousness later. In the meantime, let him rest. Let's see what the enemy is up to. Richard, would you mind checking on Frank and Miles?

Richard is changing the cloth on Ben's forehead, and gives Jack a bad stare before getting up - he obviously _does_ mind. But Ilana is faster: "Leave it to me, I'Il go.

\- Thank you.

Richard, Jack, Sun and Hurley sit in silence, Jack take a look at the pills he's going to give Ben when he wakes up. Only his breathing and the crackling of the fire disturb the silence until Miles, Frank and Ilana return.

"What happened?

\- We walked around the beach, there was no one there." replies Franck

"We saw a woman hanging there. She stayed a while then left, but we preferred not to follow her, we didn't want to be spotted. I think it'll be safe to make another round of checking in about an hour, but I don't think settling down for the camp again is a great idea" adds Miles, rolling his eyes. "Apart from that, I've picked up a few more supplies.

While he's talking, Franck takes a look at Ben's quivering silhouette. Until now on his back, the man has turned to the side, out of habit, no doubt. The pilot tilts his head slightly, frowning:

"And how does _he_ feel?

\- Very well, thank you."

The answer came from the faint voice of Ben himself.

His eyes have opened and remain immersed in the void, appearing however as attentive as possible. Immediately Richard rushes to his side, but has to give way to Jack, to let him turn Ben on his back. The doctor examines his eyes with a small lamp, the kind he had kept with him for a long time. Although the batteries are almost dead, they are still sufficient to give off enough light for the purpose he has in mind. The unusually cautious touch seems to soothe Ben's traits. He looks away as soon as Jack has finished.

"Pupils are reactive," Jack mutters to himself

Ben feels someone grasping his left hand gently and smiles at the familiar face, on his left. "Well... hello, Richard.

\- Hello, Benjamin," Richard whispers anxiously, forcing a smile on his face.

"What is going on?

\- You've been unconscious for several hours." merely explains Jack. "Do you remember feeling weak or tired before that?

\- Vaguely. My head was spinning and I wanted to sleep, but.... Are we in the cave? Have we been attacked?

\- Yes. We guess it's Locke and his group. They fired several shots at the camp, so we had to leave. Ilana brought you back."

Ben is shaken by a cough that lasts several seconds. Richard now grabs him with both hands, as if in torment.

"You should have left me," Ben finally chuckles. "You could have been caught.

\- The principle is not to give up on anyone, Ben," Ilana replies. "If we can't live together, we're gonna die alone, that's what we agreed on.

\- Live together or die alone," Benjamin repeats slowly.

A strange smile crosses his lips. Not one of those smiles he served at the Sign, those little grins suggesting the madness he could display. No, this one is pensive, exhausted. Ben almost seems to be contemplating some idea.

Jack hesitates to check on Ben's temperature, but as he sits still, Jack bends forward, ostensibly showing his intention so that Ben would be prepared to decline. Jack is surprised to see him close his eyes and to feel him shiver when he puts his palm on his forehead.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you-

\- It's alright." Ben replies.

Jack quickly understands the distrait state. Ben's forehead is way too warm for his concern. The doctor grits his teeth, trying to figure out the best thing to do. "Ben.

\- I can hear you, Dr. Sheppard..." the other says, keeping his eyes closed.

Jack sighs, smiling bitterly:

"Well, it seems like you've won."

Ben half-opens his eyelids, puzzled: 

"... and won what, please?

\- You wanted me to want to heal you, didn't you? That's what you won." Jack groans.

Ben set his eyes on Jack. The doctor laughs slightly, uncomfortably: "Don't look at me like that. I didn't say anything.

\- Thank you, Jack," he cuts him off in a barely audible whisper. "I really appreciate it.

\- That's a first.

\- I do."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk what i was going for there but i hope you enjoyed :')


End file.
